FS2004 freezes in 64 bit windows

[letmein]

Hello

I just installed my FS2004 on Windows XP 64, when I try to run it, it would work fine for a while, then it would freeze and crash the computer, causing me to hit the reset button. This happens at random, and it seems to be indenpendent of aircraft or any action that I might take. I could be flying around happily, then all of a sudden the screen would freeze and nothing would happen. Has anybody else had this problem? It didn't happen when I was running 32 bit windows...

[dunsul]

Now that's interesting. I've been very curious about this. What other software have you run on your new setup?

What I've been saving up for is the upcoming dual-core processors. I would think FS would really fly better with it since FS is mainly processor "hungry" when it comes to performance needs. But if this version won't do well on a 64 bit based OS, that's going to be the biggest downer for me and others.

http://www.fspassengers.com/images/sigi/stuart.jpg

[russellj]

I've been running without any problems at all. In fact it is performing better than with Win XP 32.

You need to provide us woth more details. I.e What are your machine specs. What FS addons are you running? What are you doing when it crashes?

You might also want to look at the Event Viewer to see if there is anything logged there.

Regards
Russell Jourdain (NZL007/ZK-RHJ)

[alanvandervyver]

Hi!

I have been running a dual processor system (essentially the same as a dual core system) for more than a year. For most general purpose computing I would heartily recommend it, but Microsoft Flight Simulator derives close to zero benefit from having more than one processor. Ironically, this is mostly because it is CPU (processor) bound.

To take advantage of more than one processor an application needs to be designed to do so. Most applications are not. The operating system is. Most applications spend a good 30% to 40% of their time making operating system calls (authorizations, file input and output, network input and output, key and mouse responses, etc.). Thus they gain from having more than one processor, even though they were not designed to take advantage of more than one. Also, if more than one application is running at a time there is a benefit.

Flight Simulator spends practically all its time in a self-absorbed, tight CPU loop. You will find that one processor runs at 100% utilization and the other at practically zero.

This same situation persists with most addons, like aircraft, Active Camera and FSNavigator, because they run within the context of Flight Simulator. Only a few products, like Active Sky, that run independently, benefit from the extra CPU, but they typically don't place much load on the system anyway.

The bottom line is that multiple CPU's are great, but don't expect any noticeable improvement with Flight Simulator.

regards,
Alan.

[loki]

Alan is right about the dual core and multiple processor systems not doing very much for FlightSim2004. Until the game developers bring out new game engines that are properly multi-threaded (like the Unreal 3 engine currently under development), dual cores will really only be of help to those who are heavy multi-taskers (you should be able to run a game and scan your computer for viruses at the same time with dual core) or in programs like graphics and video design.

loki

[letmein]

I just reformated my machine, and am just running a clean install of the simulator without any addons. I got the microsoft patch for it though. It seems to crash at random, I could be just flying around or sitting on the ground and all of a sudden the screen would just freeze, there's no specific action that I have to do to make it crash. How do I look the Event Viewer??

My machine specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+
Asus A8N-SLI motherboard
eVga Geforce 6800 GT
2GB RAM

[md11nlm]

>I just reformated my machine, and am just running a clean
>install of the simulator without any addons. I got the
>microsoft patch for it though. It seems to crash at random, I
>could be just flying around or sitting on the ground and all
>of a sudden the screen would just freeze, there's no specific
>action that I have to do to make it crash. How do I look the
>Event Viewer??
>
>My machine specs:
>AMD Athlon 64 3800+
>Asus A8N-SLI motherboard
>eVga Geforce 6800 GT
>2GB RAM

Don't know if this would help your system or not, try downloading from flightsim.com a utility called FSAutostart, read the directions carefully, and then set it up to to your specs. Can't hurt!

Good luck.

NLM

[FPEMiller]

Russell,
You are actually seeing better performance with XP64?? From what little I have read, XP64 emulates 32bit applications in a seperate 32bit environment; resulting in a somewhat slower run. I hope this is wrong and you are correct. Are you running a XP64 processor, or an Opteron system? I have been procrastinating on upgrading to XP64, but would get on it sooner if I knew it would be of benefit. (I'm running dual 248 Opterons)

I will second, or third, the other views on running a second or dual processor system. It does help in that FS will not momentarly freeze if another application suddenly needs CPU time (such as ActiveSky). This was one of my comments to MS on the current survey process. I expressed that they needed to make future FS versions capable of multithread tasking (capable of utilizing multiprocessors).

As for this original thread.... System freezes... I would suggest you check the video drivers for the XP64. Obtaining good working drivers has been an issue on the release of XP64. If I tweak or OC my video drivers way out, I get the same freeze up problem requiring the hard reboot. That's when I know to backoff my OC settings a little.

Regards,
MK